Kosovo Parliament Approves War Crimes Court

Kosovo's lawmakers have approved a motion for a European Union-backed special court to try ethnic Albanians accused of committing war crimes during the 1998-99 war of independence from Serbia.

This follows years of pressure from the European Union and United States to investigate allegations of killings of civilians by ethnic Albanian rebels.

Hundreds of ethnic Serb civilians were allegedly killed so that their organs could be harvested and sold on the black market.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, the wartime leader of the rebels, has rejected the allegations.

About 10,000 people died during the war, many of them ethnic Albanians.

Also Wednesday, forensic experts began excavating a mass grave at a quarry in Serbia believed to contain the bodies of several hundred Kosovo Albanians killed by Serbian security forces during the war.